| British Agent | |
|---|---|
 Poster of British Agent | |
| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Written by | Laird Doyle Roland Pertwee |
| Based on | Memoirs of a British Agent 1932 memoir byR. H. Bruce Lockhart |
| Produced by | Henry Blanke |
| Starring | Leslie Howard Kay Francis William Gargan Cesar Romero |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Edited by | Thomas Richards |
| Music by | Bernhard Kaun Heinz Roemheld |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Russian |
| Budget | $475,000[1] |
British Agent is a 1934 Americanromanticespionage film directed byMichael Curtiz and starringLeslie Howard andKay Francis. It is based onMemoirs of a British Agent, the 1932autobiography ofR. H. Bruce Lockhart, who worked for theBritish Secret Service during theRussian Revolution and had an affair with a Russian agent, later known asMoura Budberg. The film was produced byFirst National, then a division ofWarner Bros.
In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke, a minor British diplomat, watches rioting in the streets. The revolutionary Elena Moura shoots it out with aCossack soldier. When she retreats onto the grounds of the consulate, the soldier follows, forcing Stephen to intervene to protect Britishextraterritoriality. After the Cossack leaves, Elena emerges; she and Steven are attracted to each other, but their politics clash. Elena departs.
After theRussian Empire is overthrown and theSoviet Union is born, most Western diplomats evacuate. Stephen is left behind with just a servant, "Poohbah" Evans. Day after day, he waits with mounting frustration for instructions, passing the time with others in the same situation, the American Bob Medill, Gaston LeFarge, and Tito Del Val.
His boredom is lifted when he meets Elena again. She is now an important member of the government, working for Commissioner of WarLeo Trotsky. He romances her, and they quickly fall in love.
However, her first loyalty is to her country. She demonstrates that when Stephen finally receives orders from the United Kingdom. He is to try to preventSoviet Russia from concluding a separate peace withImperial Germany, which would free up large numbers of German soldiers for theWestern Front, but he is warned that he is only an "unofficial" British representative. Stephen carelessly reads the message in Elena's hearing. She passes along the information to her boss. As a result, when Stephen pleads with the Soviet government inMoscow to keep fighting, his arguments are undercut by their awareness of his status. He manages to get a delay of three weeks to see if he can persuade his superiors to agree to Soviet demands: £50 million, five army divisions and munitions. Instead, without Stephen's knowledge, the British send a force toArchangel to fight alongside the internal enemies of the Soviets.
After the Tsar is executed, Medill, LeFarge and Del Val persuade Stephen to join them in supportingcounterrevolutionary forces. WhenVladimir Lenin is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, the Soviets initiate a harsh crackdown. LeFarge and Del Val are killed while they attempt to contact a rebel military leader in the city. Medill tries to do the same, but is caught and tortured for Stephen's whereabouts. When he refuses to crack, he is sentenced to die by firing squad the next day.
Elena is ordered to persuade him to tell her where Stephen is; knowing that she is in love with Stephen, Medill gives her the address. She reluctantly gives the information to Trotsky, who orders soldiers to level the building. Elena sneaks into the building, as she is determined to die with Stephen. They are reprieved, however. Just as the soldiers start shooting, news arrives that Lenin will recover and that he has ordered the release of all political prisoners. Later, Stephen and Elena depart for Britain. At the train station, Medill requests they send him a supply ofbubble gum.
At one point, the studio considered the possibility of shooting some sceneson location in theSoviet Union, but the political situation there made that impossible. Instead, the film was shot at the studio inHollywood, with sets designed by theart directorAnton Grot. The comparatively-large budget of $475,000 allowed 41 different sets to be used to recreateImperial Russia and the early years of the Revolution.
The same book was partly used as an inspiration for the television seriesReilly, Ace of Spies, which also portrayed the adventures of Lockhart andSidney Reilly during their years inMoscow around the time of theRussian Revolution.